Shipping out

Owner phasing out live-aboards at marina



The Island Moorings Marina is seen in an aerial photo shot in 2016. Under new ownership, the marina plans to phase out the practice of allowing people to live on their boats.

The Island Moorings Marina is seen in an aerial photo shot in 2016. Under new ownership, the marina plans to phase out the practice of allowing people to live on their boats.

The Island Moorings Marina has a new owner that has begun phasing out the practice of allowing people to live on their boats.

And, unless something changes, it doesn’t look like the people who live in the approximately 25 live-aboard boats in Island Moorings Marina will find a new place to live at the city marina (officially known as the Dennis Dreyer Municipal Harbor).

As a matter of policy, the city hasn’t been accepting new live-aboards at its marina since 2014, said City Manager Dave Parsons.

Two folks stroll along a dock at the Island Moorings Marina on Thursday, Feb. 23. New ownership at the marina are phasing out the practice of allowing people to live on their boats in the marina.

Two folks stroll along a dock at the Island Moorings Marina on Thursday, Feb. 23. New ownership at the marina are phasing out the practice of allowing people to live on their boats in the marina.

New ownership

A firm called TCRG of Fort Worth purchased the Island Moorings Marina from Kevin Dean. The closing date was Feb. 3.

TCRG already owned a large amount of the undeveloped property near the marina.

After the closing date, the company began what will be an extensive maintenance and safety improvement program at the marina, said Robert Tipps, TCRG’s project manager.

The company restored power to part of a dock where there was none, worked on various safety issues and fixed a plumbing problem where 300 gallons of water an hour was being lost, Tipps said.

TCRG plans to shore up “almost every branch of the dock,” he said. The firm also plans a $1 million investment to replace tanks that hold fuel for boats at the marina, he said.

As for phasing out live-aboards, “we are kind of following suit with what the city initiated a couple of years ago and what other marinas in the area have done already,” Tipps said.

Having live-aboards “was not a business model that was sustainable,” he said. “In order to remain open, you have to invest in the infrastructure of the marina, and that business model is not a long-term plan for success.”

There are advantages to having live-aboards in a marina, he said. For example, having people living there means more eyes on the docks, which means someone is more likely to spot it quickly when something breaks and alerts management Tipps said.

On the other hand, he said, costs go up when a marina owner must provide a standard of living in addition to just giving people spots where they can store boats.

“There are a lot of things that come along with permanent residents that create wear and tear on a facility,” Tipps said.

With the new policy at the marina, live-aboards are being eliminated in a town where it increasingly has become difficult in recent years for folks with modest incomes to find housing they can afford.

Tipps said he understands that.

“I’m compassionate to the situation we have here,” he said. “My wife is an educator here. I live in the community. I understand the need we have here, so I’m very sensitive to that. I understand families are being displaced, and we’re trying to do everything we can to help.”

Tipps said no one is being told to leave immediately.

Folks living on their boats at Island Moorings Marina will be allowed to stay until their contracts run out, and people whose contracts expire especially soon will be given extra time to relocate, accord- ing to Tipps.

Efforts are being made to find new homes for the people who will have to go, he said.

“We’re trying to find a solution for these folks,” Tipps said. We’re doing the best we can in a situation that needs to change.”

Live-aboard folks who find apartments, houses or condominiums to live in will have the opportunity to keep their boats at the marina, Tipps said.

But, because all of the live-aboard contracts are for one year or less, Tipps said he expects all of the live-aboards to be phased out by a year from now.

Island Moorings Marina live-aboard folks reached by the South Jetty declined to be interviewed for this story.

At the city marina

People live on only four vessels at the city marina, according to the city harbor master’s office.

A number of live-aboards left the city marina over the past few years after the city created new rules that all boats in the marina within one year would have to produce evidence of Coast Guard inspections, insurance policies and current registrations, Parsons said. That resulted in some “derelict” vessels leaving, including some live-aboards, he said.

During a summer budget workshop held by the city council in 2014, Parsons brought up the idea of enacting a new city policy to stop accepting new live-aboards and grandfather in the existing ones. The council signed off on the idea, he said.

The city harbormaster’s office and city hall were having to deal with too many problems associated with live-aboards, Parsons said.

“We had (people in) live-aboards bickering, fights, problems with dogs and more,” he said. “It was a never-ending social exercise with people not getting along. … It was as if the city was in the housing business because we had so many tenants. It was the council’s and staff’s position that we should be running a marina, not an apartment complex.”

If any more live-aboards are to be added, it will require action by the city council, because staff policy is not to allow more in, Parsons said.

Even if the city decides to allow more live-aboards, space could be an issue. More than 20 boats have had to relocate to other spaces in the marina so workers can remove an old wooden dock and replace it with a new floating concrete dock, Parsons said. The work is expected to take place roughly through May and June.


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